Enabling industry development and training engineers to lead Europe's future energy industry

The focus is on energy production and consumption, responsible for 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions. On March 16th, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, gave a keynote speech at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2021, where she mentions initiatives using Green Hydrogen to decarbonise the production of Steel. She shares, "We want to reconcile the way we produce and do business with the health of our planet… because what is good for the planet is good for business and good for us all." Following this physolophy, EIT InnoEnergy has launched the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Center (EGHAC) – an initiative supported by Breakthrough Energy - to create half a million direct/indirect jobs across the entire value chain.

EIT InnoEnergy's innovative Master's programmes focus on training a new wave of experts in these evolving fields. For example, the EIT InnoEnergy Master's in Energy Storage which is preparing students for the thousands of jobs being created in this field on a yearly basis.

Regarding green hydrogen, Professor Massimo Santarelli of Politecnico di Torino shares the activities at PoliTo – where he leads the EIT InnoEnergy Master's in Sustainable Energy Systems programme: "The university has a long history of H2-related research and projects over the last few decades, with several laboratories dedicated to the topic. We offer a variety of activities on several topics ranging from the production of green H2, its broad range of uses and storage, to the production of synthetic chemicals from it."

EIT InnoEnergy Master's programmes also offer fields projects to give students first-hand experiences. Such as the hydrogen-based storage system a team of MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems students created for the small Finnish island of Kökar. Team member Vamsi Krishna Dokka shares: "Studying at the best universities in Europe certainly offers us resources that would not have been available elsewhere. The industry is open to our ideas and eager to help us develop them, making it easier to find good projects so we can learn by doing." By addressing small-scale scenarios to find scalable solutions, these student projects pave the way for exciting new global solutions!

As President von der Leyen says, "The energy transition is at the heart of our European Green Deal." Therefore, EIT InnoEnergy is dedicated to not only enabling industrial development to meet the EU's goals – but also to train the engineers needed to make this transition successful!

Photo credits: Konstantin Spuler.